My Lovecraft
by Noctis the Devious
Summary: For every rover there is a story, and for the Gardener, the Architect, the Journeyman, the Warrior and the Historian a new page is about to be written.


Pacen hummed along to the upbeat tune playing on the jukebox as she chopped at the big oak tree that seemed to provide an endless supply of wood. The branches reached out in a dozen different directions and just when the bluenette thought she was done, leaf blocks would slowly break down only to reveal more.

"Wow, this tree really is huge!" the teen-turned-lumberjack peered down the blocks she stacked up to ensure she could reach it all and spied the figure of her best friend and current roommate, Ken, gawking up at her with his signature childish grin breaking across his face.

"Tell me about it," she grumbled loud enough for him to hear. "My arms are getting sore. There's another one a good twelve blocks away too." She sighed and took a brief break, wiping at her forehead with a dusty arm. She then made a face when realized she this; a bath was definitely on her nightly agenda. When she glanced back down at Ken to ask about his quota, movement caught her eye and she paled considerably. "Ken!" she shrieked. "Ken! Ken! Get it! Get it! Get it!" Her stone ax was thrust in the direction of the presumed threat but Ken didn't have to look to know what had his friend all in a panic.

Sure enough, a little green snake slithered out from around a nearby tree and the awkward boy quickly reached for the bow strapped to his back, notching an arrow and taking aim. Above him, Pacen continued to shriek and if it weren't for the fact he was used to hearing her panic he would have found it more than a tiny bit distracting. The arrow whistled through the summer's dry air and met its mark in the ground in front of the green menace and effectively frightened it off.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, looking up at a now treed Pacen but blinked in confusion. "Uh… How did you get up there?" He stared dumbfounded at the girl in question, who was sitting on a wood block with her legs crossed, arms folded over her chest, and an unimpressed expression molding her features half obscured by a fringe of blue hair. The expression wasn't aimed at her friend though, it was more aimed at the predicament she got herself in.

"Well this was connected to that," the blue haired girl explained, pointing the main trunk of the butchered oak tree. "But the leaf blocks didn't want to become snake chow either. Just get me down from here." The wood block she took up residence on was floating at least nine blocks off the ground so jumping was out of the question.

Ken blushed and tapped his forefingers together in a bashful manner. "You know, you could always jump down and I could catch you," he suggested with a silly smile playing across his lips, all the while imagining his childhood crush leaping into his arms.

Pacen sighed inwardly at her love struck friend and proceeded to crash his lovey-dovey moment with a cold hard fact of life, "Ken? If I jumped and allowed you to catch me, we would _both _get hurt." The awkward teen's ears burned with the realization and a disappointed 'oh' escaped him. "Just stack up some blocks over here and I can get down from there." Ken obeyed and was soon standing in front of the treed blue hair girl beaming proudly. From there, it was a simple matter of breaking the stacked blocks and slowly lowering themselves down to the ground.

"Thank you," Pacen chimed, already starting to pack up.

"We're done for the day?" Ken checked. While Pacen was chopping down trees - and hopefully planting whatever saplings she found - Ken was scavenging for coal and iron. Scavenging because he couldn't stand being down in the mines by himself. There were some small indents in the earth he could brave, but as soon as he realized they opened up to bigger sections he was out of there without further preamble.

"Yep," Pacen confirmed. She shouldered her backpack with a grunt and chose to carry her ax in hand. Word was, bandits roamed the small forest no matter the time of day. She then remembered her question before her little… episode. "Any luck?"

"Of course! Found a good stack of coal but I could only find five iron ore," her companion reported.

"That's as good as any. We'll go down in the mines tomorrow it you're up for it." Using wooden and stone tools just wasn't cutting it any more and they could use some stronger defenses. "Who knows, maybe we can find another enchanted bow for you." Ken perked up when he heard that. The last enchanted bow he had unfortunately broke during a zombie and skeleton ambush down in the mines. He refused to go below alone since.

The blue haired girl paused when she spotted an apple stuck up in a tree and her stomach gave a growl. She had eaten her last pork chop earlier that day and she wasn't just about to ask Ken for any of his food. "Hey, hold on," she told him. "One last tree and _then_ we're done."

* * *

The forest was alive with song. Cicadas called to one another from unknown locations while a small pack of wolves lazed under the shadows provided by the proud oaks and the occasional birch. Some trees laid low enough to hide the wolves from view. A couple of the canines' white heads lifted from their paws and their fluffy ears perked when they caught the sound of several footfalls heading their way. It wasn't long before hiking boots stepped into their line of vision followed by eight other furred covered legs.

The legs the bodies supported where lower to the ground and too lithe to be of wolf decent. Long tails flicked behind them and slit eyes cast suspicious looks toward the pack members, and tall, pointed ears swiveled on top of their spotted heads. The wolves left the ocelots be as they neither posed a threat nor were worth the energy to chase out into the summer sun. Nevertheless, the ocelots remained guarded until they were safely passed the pack and looked back to their tamer, a tall blonde male fretting over a map. His puffy golden eyes narrowed at the splotches of color marking the different biomes instead of reveling in the nature surrounding him. In fact, he was sick of nature. He traveled a long way from home and just wanted to find the small village he had business with, but instead of sprawling flatlands dotted with grazing animals, there were trees as far as the eye could see. It wouldn't be so bad if the forest didn't house bandits and evil little flowers alike.

Nathaniel let out another stream of sneezes before sniffling, feeling down right miserable. He was exhausted, thirsty, and - no more denying it - hopelessly _lost_. He groaned and shoved the map unceremoniously back into his knapsack and even considered climbing one of the trees to get a better view of the landscape. The only thing preventing him from carrying out the thought was an unexpected disturbance in coloration against the greens and browns.

He nearly leapt for joy and sprinted toward the blur of color up on the bough not doubting it to be human. But the sight that greeted him when he neared enough gave him pause. A teenage girl no older than he was up in the tree, her dyed blue hair a dead give away, but at the foot of the butchered trunk was a male with dull brown hair and wide brimmed glasses that reflected the light in an obscuring way. It was nearly impossible to tell what color his eyes were or if he even had eyes. The suspicious male was gathering up felled wood blocks as the girl chopped them down and anger pushed Nathaniel those last few feet.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded as he marched right up to the thief. "That's stealing!" The male in question gaped at him wordlessly in fear. He stood frozen under Nathaniel's angry gold, albeit puffy, gaze not sure what he should do. Nathaniel didn't hesitate to snatch the block of wood he was holding away from him, but before he could give a lecture on rights and wrongs, an equally angry voice called down to them,

"What the heck do you think _you're_ doing?!" Nathaniel barely had time to stumble back as the girl previous up in the tree dropped down between them, ax in hand. "Unless you planted the tree yourself give that back!" The blonde young man looked from the annoyed woman to the still fear-struck male behind her and it dawned on him.

"My apologies," he quickly replied, holding the wood block out for the pair to take. "I thought he was stealing the wood from you. These words are said to be riddle with bandits you know."

The female snorted in amusement and snatched the wood block away from him. "Yeah, I know, we only live around here."

Once again, hope gave Nathaniel the energy he needed to see his task complete. "Then you wouldn't happen to know where the nearest village is?" He pulled out his map just in case.

The bluenette barely bothered with a glance toward the piece of worn parchment. "What do you think, Ken? Fifteen, maybe a twenty minutes walk from here?" Nathaniel's heart plummeted. The sun was already setting and monsters would be out within ten to fifteen minutes time. In his current condition, he wouldn't be able to make it.

The accused thief, Ken, seemed to of taken pity on the blonde because the next thing he heard him say was, "Maybe we could let him stay the night?" Nathaniel's head shot up and was met by the blue haired girl's wide, surprised green eye - the other hidden from view.

"Well, I guess he could. No sense in letting him wander about out here…" she didn't sound completely sure of the agreement.

* * *

"Uh…" Both Ken and Pacen turned to the newest addition to their party, who had introduced himself as Nathaniel, to find him staring at their home, or 'base' as they were fond of calling it, with nothing short of confusion and the barest hint of disapproval.

"Is there a problem?" Pacen challenged, obviously offended. "If so, we can easily make you walk to the village." Only a sliver of light remained and already monsters could be seen. Behind him, stark against the fading blue, was the silhouette of the village's sky line.

The blonde traveler rubbed his neck in discomfort. When they - more specifically Ken - offered to let him stay at their base, he assumed they lived in a normal house. Not - for the lack of better wording - a pile of dirt. The 'structure' was nothing more than a natural formation in the shape of a clunky teepee located on a piece of land jutting out from the edge of a lake. From where he stood, he could see two jack-o-lanters placed on either side of both entrances kiddy corner from each other and notably flooded. The small cave on the inside was well lit by torches.

Ken and Pacen were already ridding themselves of their footwear and Nathaniel grudgingly followed suit. Fortunately the water was shallow but freezing cold. Assuming they crossed the pond of water every day, how did they not catch hypothermia? He was then lead to a nook where Pacen broke a block and revealed a hidden lever. Nathaniel's interest was instantly piqued. Once pulled, the wall in front of them dropped and became a descending staircase. The bluenette tossed an arrogant smile Nathaniel's way before leading the parade down the stairs and into cavern in a shape of a near perfect dome guarded by a single wooden door. Down below, the walls were made of a mixture of dirt, stone, sand, and sandstone.

"Did you two mine this out?" Nathaniel inquired in awe. He could only imagine how big of a hassle that would have been seeing as they were under a large body of water.

Ken shook his head and, for the first time since he made his suggestion, spoke up, "I was mining out a vein of coal when I discovered this. The only thing that we really did was tweak the entrance." Some tweak.

Nathaniel's golden gaze continued to take in his new surroundings. The whole space was lit and warmed by strategically placed torches and the occasional nook and cranny was present. One such nook held a bed and a chest located at the footboard. The other bed was on the other side of the room and had a large chest stuck above it. He also took note of another lever not unlike the one by the door Pacen used to reset the secret passage.

"What does that one do?" the blonde traveler asked.

"That," Pacen began, "leads down to our very own bath house. Now that we did have to build ourselves." She was knelt down in front of yet another chest located against the wall right of the door. Next to it, two furnaces where built into a column of stone. "Here," she proceeded to hand their guest three blocks of wool and wood. "The crafting table is over there." She motioned toward a wooden block with tools and utensils hanging off the sides kiddy corner to the furnaces and mounted on top of a single block of stone. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and take bath."

The blunette gathered up a change of clothes from the chest at the end of the bed in the nook and ventured down the staircase made by the lever-activated secrete passage. The wall closed back up once she was at the bottom and Nathaniel and Ken were left to their own devices. More accurately described as an awkward silence. The two ocelots, which had surprisingly followed him down considering they never entered a building with him before, made themselves right at home and began grooming themselves while Nathaniel set to work on his bed. He kind of hoped he could keep it too.

"So… uh… do they have names?" Ken questioned, trying to stir up some small talk.

The blonde traveler glanced over that the ocelots he had tamed and shook his head. "I picked them up recently when I cut through a jungle biome a couple days ago. I had some raw fish on me when they approached me out of the blue, but I didn't have the heart to turn them down. They've stuck by me since. Can I ask you a question, Ken?" The moment he received a confirmation he continued, "Why do you guys live down here? It's nice and all, and definitely protected, but it's a bit… crude." And they most definitely had the means to make a much nicer dwelling. To his surprise, the awkward teen chuckled.

"We don't live down here, silly!" At Nathaniel's confused expression, Ken went over to _another _chest kept in a nook above Pacen's bed and pulled out an armful of parchment. "This is only our base," he further elaborated as he carefully dumped the pile of parchment down on the floor in the center of the cavern. He spread the sheets out and further inspection revealed them to be drawn on with painstaking precision even he could appreciate. One of the drawings was then handed to the blonde traveler. "But yes, the reason we chose to stay is because it's protected and it's only a ten minute walk from both the village and to the forest in the east."

Nathaniel rose a brow at the drawing - no, blueprint - in hand. It depicted a detailed designs of what looked to be a gardening area. The dirt blocks were 'shelved' to prevent trampling and were brilliantly placed over water. The arrangement continued in a square spiral around the room. Most of the walls were made of glass and the floors of wood all except for the entrance way. Instead of a wooden block, the visitors were walking in on a chest used for storage.

Ken blushed, a goofy grin on his face. "Pacen designed it herself with some help from a guy we bumped into at a library. I love gardening but because of all the animals that roam the flatlands, it's near impossible to keep a healthy garden without loosing crops." Another blueprint was offered to Nathaniel and he accepted it wordlessly. "Above it is going to be a sitting room with mostly glass flooring and ceiling. Extending from that is going to two rooms. There's also going to be a dining area, a kitchen, a library, and a workroom. It's only a draft of course, and she's still working out the details, but once she's done we'll finally have a place to call our own."

Nathaniel eyed Ken and his suddenly bashful demeanor. "Are you two…" the awkward teen shook his head and sat back on his hands.

"A couple? No, we're just really good friends, and I'm okay with that."

The secret passage opened up and in walked up Pacen with a towel draped around her neck. "Bed time, kiddies," she snickered, plopping down on her bed and stretching out. She didn't seem to mind the mess Ken had made of her blueprints.

Nathaniel, now finished with his bed, took up temporary residence against the furthest wall between an anvil and a cauldron and was finally glad to have a proper bed to sleep on. One of the ocelots under his care hopped up on the mattress and snuggled in as well while the other remained curled up on the cold stone floor. He considered naming them right then, but he was already being dragged down into the depths of restful slumber.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I don't own Minecraft nor My Candy Love but I do own Pacen. Credit to Hans_Lemurson for the crop room design thingy. I might or might not post the PS3 map seed and cooridnates where I found the 'natural formation shaped like clunky teepee' which inspired Pacen and Ken's base, which I'm currently using as a "base".


End file.
